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Fear of flying: Bristol airport

Taking off from Bristol.
Taking off from Bristol.

We’re taking to the skies today, with a field recording from a plane taking off from Bristol airport in the UK, courtesy of Daniel Williams. He had the idea for the recording and reimagined piece before he even boarded the plane, and he explains what you can listen to below:

“The original recording is actually made up of two tracks.

The first is a standard stereo take from the inside of the aircraft, whilst the second is a simultaneous mono recording from a contact mic on the floor of the plane. I have adjusted the volumes on the two recordings so we move between them as the track progresses.

As I recorded this, absorbing in my headphones the wall of sound emanating from the plane, I considered how if the “broadband” noise of the planes engines contains amplitudes in all frequency ranges, then it must be possible to break them down and isolate just a few, before reconstructing them into that hellish roar.

The memory piece is a result of me messing around with this concept using a comb filter and a frequency shifter.”

City version:

Memory version: